One of the most difficult issues facing many high-tech and industrial companies is how to overcome the lack of strategic thinking about market segments that has historically been a serious deficiency. For years, and in many cases generations, the management of these companies has looked for ways to strengthen R&D, sales, and/or production activities without a clear focus on defined market needs. Now these same managers must reorient their thinking first to define specific segments and then to determine what it takes to serve these segments more effectively than the competition. This attitudinal shift is much more fundamental than it sounds. For the many executives who have talked a good game of marketing without doing much different must now provide the leadership and direction to ensure that R&D, production, and sales activities are specifically geared to the requirements of selected market segments.

To change the corporation’s mind-set to strategic market segmentation, multiple-level and intensive management development programs are usually necessary. When managers have typically advanced through engineering and manufacturing or “operations,” a strategic market segment orientation is even more needed. These managers must learn that market segmentation and market selection are the starting points for all decisions and action programs.

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